


synchronity

by kiyala



Category: FreakAngels
Genre: Confessions, First Kiss, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 10:45:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2809511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiyala/pseuds/kiyala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirk is Karl's best friend. Maybe more. He'll figure it out later.</p>
            </blockquote>





	synchronity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [piecrumbs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/piecrumbs/gifts).



> Happy yuletide! I hope you have a great end to your year! x

Karl is fifteen, he's very much into listening to punk-rock music loud enough that it drowns out the world around him, and he'd currently be grounded for taking the electric razor to his hair and giving himself a mohawk if his parents weren't so damn terrified of him. 

"I like it," Kirk says, smoothing his hand over the dome of Karl's head. The short hair bristles under the touch and—fuck, it feels really nice and Karl might only be fifteen but he knows enough to know that it has very little to do with his hair and everything to do with the fact that it's Kirk's hand. 

"Mum hates it," he mutters with a small shrug that pushes Kirk out of his personal space, even if it isn't very far. That's the thing about them—all twelve of them—personal space works differently between them. Everything does, and he supposes that it comes from the fact that physical distance doesn't really mean shit when they can actually get into each other's heads. _Can_ , not will, which is just about the only thing that keeps him sane sometimes, because figuring all of his shit out is horrible enough without having to worry about Kirk finding out about it before Karl's ready to let him know.

"Do _you_ like the way it looks?" Kirk asks seriously, looking over the top of his aviators so that he's properly _watching_ Karl, and he's only fifteen too but in that moment, he somehow looks a hell of a lot older and wiser. "Because if you do, that's all that matters. Knobhead."

Karl sighs heavily and looks away. "I just wish that I didn't give my mum yet another reason to avoid looking at me."

With a matching sigh of his own, Kirk wraps his arm around Karl's shoulders and rests their heads together. Kirk's hair is soft against Karl's bare scalp and it tickles a little, but it's… nice. Karl leans against Kirk in return, and the arm around him tightens a little more.

"Her loss, really. Doesn't know what she's missing. You're definitely worth looking at."

"I don't want my fucking _mum_ thinking that, you tool," Karl snorts.

"Well, it's true."

It's a damn good thing that Kirk can't see his face right now, because Karl is pretty sure he's red. "…Thanks."

«·»

"You're an idiot," Jack says as he walks over to Karl, just outside the shed where the others are partying. They're sixteen. Karl's thing for Kirk has gotten worse, but he's figured it out, so at least he's better at handling it.

"Fuck you too," Karl replies, taking a drag from his spliff and exhaling it into Jack's face. "Shouldn't you be off hiding somewhere and fucking Sirkka?"

Coughing, Jack waves the smoke out of his face. "We're not talking."

"Right, and _I'm_ the idiot."

Jack sighs heavily and nods to where Kirk is talking to Arkady. Karl follows his gaze and finds it really difficult to look away. He's smoked and drank just enough tonight that he wonders if he should really bother looking away at all, but then Kirk looks up from his conversation and meets Karl's eyes with a quizzical smile.

"Shit, shit, shit," he mutters under his breath, and Jack snorts.

"You're so afraid of what he'll find in your head that you're not even paying attention to what's right in front of you," Jack tells him. "So I'm here to tell you that maybe you should do something about the fact that you want to bend Kirk over the nearest surface and—"

"Get out of my fucking head or I'll punch you in the face," Karl snaps.

"Don't have to be in your head to figure that out," Jack replies, unfazed by the threat. "It's obvious. Painfully obvious. Maybe do something about it?"

Karl swallows hard. "But Kirk doesn't—"

"For fuck's sake," Jack says, loud enough to capture Kirk and Arkady's attention. They look away again after a moment and he lowers his voice to add, "Would I be telling you to do something about it if he didn't?"

Considering it for a moment, Karl replies, "You might. For your entertainment."

"Luke might," Jack corrects. "Wouldn't put it past Mark. Me, though? Not when I know I'd have to put up with you being a miserable shit when it all goes downhill." 

Humming in thought, Karl nods. "You're not as stupid as you look."

"Fuck off," Jack mutters. "See if I try and help you again."

Karl watches as Jack starts walking away and then speaks up. "Sirkka's in the woods with Caz."

"What?"

"She's avoiding you, right?" Karl shrugs lazily. "Fix it, for fuck's sake. I think the mopey expressions are actually worse than the sex noises."

Jack nods gratefully. "Does that mean you'll talk to—"

"Just go and fucking apologise to your girlfriend, you git."

«·»

"So."

Karl chews on his lip and eventually works up the nerve to meet Kirk's eyes. "So."

"Jack is a dirty bastard who needs to mind his own business," Kirk mutters, and that makes Karl laugh.

It's been maybe a month since Jack first spoke to Karl and nothing's happened in that time. Looks like Jack got impatient. Just because _some_ people don't dive headfirst into a relationship that could potentially fuck everything up forever. 

"So maybe we should talk," Karl says, because one of them has to, because there's no real other way they're going to get out of this. Jack's seen to that. Fucking Jack.

"Okay, how about this," Kirk says. "I know you're going to hate it, but—"

"You're going to suggest looking in each other's heads, aren't you?" Karl asks, and he only groans a little. "You know how I feel about getting inside each other's heads."

"It's either that or we use actual words," Kirk points out.

"Okay. I'm opening my mind right now. Count of three?"

They count in unison and Karl braces himself for what he's going to find. He doesn't expect to find a stash of memories, snapshots of moments that Kirk's hoarded away; an accidental brush of hands, an afternoon spent smoking behind Kirk's garden shed, the knowledge that they always have each other's backs. He finds the moment in Kirk's memory where they stopped feeling like friends and started feeling like something more, and he isn't quite sure exactly what Kirk's found in _his_ head, but he's got a faraway look in his eyes and a tiny smile tugging at his lips, so Karl supposes that it can't be all that bad.

"So I'm going to kiss you now," Karl murmurs and Kirk nods, leaning forward. They steady themselves with their hands on each other's shoulders and it doesn't really occur to either of them that they should do something about the mental link before their lips meet. 

It's weird, kissing someone and feeling the kiss from the other end too. It's good, in that weird way that Karl wishes he didn't like as much as he does whenever it's something to do with their abilities. His hands go to Kirk's hair, curling into it and Kirk tries to do the same, fingers bristling over Karl's buzzed hair before settling for holding him still and kissing him harder.

They're inexperienced and it's bad and they both know it, but they'll have plenty of time to improve on their kissing and the fact that they simultaneously have the thought makes them both grin against each other's lips.

"So," Kirk whispers, when they finally pull apart. "We're doing this."

"Yeah," Karl says, quiet and cautious, as if there's a chance of Kirk wanting to back out now, as if their mental link isn't still up. 

Kirk kisses Karl again, nipping his lower lip just hard enough to make him hiss. "It's a good thing, you knob."

"Yeah." Karl circles his arms around Kirk's waist, pulling him close. "I know that much."

He might not know a hell of a lot else, but this is enough for now.


End file.
